Pans 2016

The good:

James, Nader and Walter performing very well

Acai bowls

Cookie bar

Laying around in 80F temps for an afternoon

Rachael's logistical planning
Winning a match at brown

Having Hannette and Mackenzie recognize and chat with me

The meh:

Losing by dubious reffing in absolute

Having a 3hr delay in Oakland on the way home

The bad:

Team drama

Getting beat by Nika AGAIN (she's 3-0 against me)

My "takedowns"

Feeling completely fatigued in absolute

Got in on Wed early afternoon, didn't compete until Friday night. Wednesday was a super chill, relaxed day. 

Thursday we went to watch Nader compete. He did really well, taking silver in adult purple.

Sleep and everything was fine on Thursday into Friday. I thought I was only a couple of pounds under, so didn't eat much Friday. Big mistake. I was at least 7lb under (with gi). Had one of the bbqs but should have had about three.

Rachael went an hour or so before I did. She got a very tough Brazilian that seemed most interested in ripping her gi top off with a weird takedown grip. Rachael slipped on a puddle of water on the mat, her opponent was awarded takedown points and it went downhill from there.

I was feeling pretty good by match time. Wasn't quite as warm as I would like. Made the mistake of not using the warm-up mats. Went out there intending to fake a guard pull to ankle pick, did a shitty job, got taken down and again, downhill from there. Don't remember much about the match other than most of it was spent with her passing my guard.

Didn't feel like I belonged at brown after that, was pretty displeased with myself in general. Signed up for absolute anyway. Should have ran upstairs and had bbq and acai, but didn't. Dumb. No energy for absolute. Won my first match by points. No idea what happened or what the score was. Wanted to quit after that match I was so out of energy. Second match was brutal in that there was lots of movement. I almost tapped to fatigue. Very even match. Lost on points, again, I don't know the score. I was told by several teammates/coaches that I wasn't awarded points that I should have been. Whatever. I was happy to at least have a couple of competitive matches.

The team drama unfolded on Friday and was very bad. I had nothing to do with it, but was in the middle of it based on proximity. It continued for the rest of the weekend, which was unfortunate.

Didn't get to enjoy near the number of black belt matches that I wanted b/c of team commitments, drama, poor seating choices and no one else being especially interested in watching them. We had to be at the airport at 3pm on Sunday, so we missed all of the finals. 

All in all, despite the sour taste of the non jiu jitsu related crap, I'm glad I went. It was great to see teammates/coaches succeed. I had two competitive matches at brown, so I need to cut myself a bit of slack as far as skills are concerned. I still feel like I was promoted waaaaaaaay too early, but whatever. 

Peer Pressure

I have succumbed to significant peer pressure and signed up for Pans at the last minute. I don't feel like I'm rolling especially well lately, but I have been training quite a bit and am injury-free (knock on wood). I knew that I would regret not going once the deadline passed to register, so there you have it.

It will be interesting to see if my rolling improves once I lessen the frequency of training. That probably won't happen until next week, as I'm doing a double today, possibly Thu night class, Fri morning, Sat, Sun, and a double next Monday. No wonder I've been sleeping so well. :p

I've been rolling with Rachael exclusively at night classes to get her ready for Pans. Morning classes have been a good mix of upper and lower belts.

My biggest concern, as always, is stand-up. I need to come up with a gameplan fast. I'm not particularly enamored of my guard game now, but I don't foresee me coming up with a take-down combo in the next week. The woman who beat me last year is in my bracket this year. The dreaded three person bracket, no less. She shut down my guard game but good. 

Cram in Training

I've been in the midst of moving, Part 1 of 2 anyway. Selling my house in town (Part 1) and looking for a place with acreage (Part 2). I've managed to keep up fairly regular training, only dipping as low as thrice a week. This past weekend was tough, as I went Friday morning, taught Saturday, rolled in the open mat Saturday, did an hour straight of rolling at the women's open mat on Sunday, advanced class Sunday and then morning and evening class on Monday. Woof.

I haven't put my gym back together in my temp residence so I haven't lifted in a couple of weeks. Still doing the day-of-the-year push-ups (61 today).

Regardless of how much I train I'm not seeing improvement in my rolling. I'm sure that I'm overdoing it physically. I do feel like my understanding improves each day, so at least I've got that.

Still probably not doing Pans, but my registration for brown did go through today so I technically could. I can't find airfare cheaper than $400+ and already took time off of work to get the house ready to sell and move all of my crap. 

James let Rachael and I roll for the last half hour of class to prepare her for Pans while everyone else did KOTH. Competitive and tiring roll. Chaz wanted to roll after class and I looked at him like he had three heads... but I did it anyway. I finally ran completely out of gas after what I hope was at least 5min.